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Friday, July 21, 2017

CareFirst CEO on Anne Arundel Medical dispute: 'Nothing like this has ever happened'

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield CEO Chet Burrell said in his 10 years at the insurer, no care provider has ever responded to fee negotiation disputes by threatening to terminate a contract until Anne Arundel Medical Center.

AAMC announced Monday that it may end its contract with the region's largest health insurer this year due to "unsustainable" reductions in reimbursements the hospital and associated physician and imaging practices would receive from the insurance carrier for medical services.

"Our priority is to continue to provide quality health care for people in this region. We want to keep costs low for our patients," said AAMC CEO Victoria Bayless. "But reimbursement rates need to be reasonable."

Burrell said CareFirst has had contracts with Anne Arundel Health System for about 60 years. And while it is common in contract negotiations for insurer and providers to disagree on fees, it is "extremely unusual," for any provider to announce potential termination like this, he said, and "nothing like this has ever happened." There is no other major hospital network or physician group in the region with which CareFirst does not have a contract.

9 comments:

Anonymous
said...

It happened with the anesthesiologists at PRMC a few years back. They stopped taking Blue Cross for a while and patients with that insurance had to pay out of pocket or go elsewhere if they wanted their anesthesia covered.

CareFirst BCBS has been lowering payments to physicians and hospitals for years, every year. It is about time physicians and hospitals fight back. These companies and their CEOs are swimming in money yet they nickle and dime healthcare providers, perpetually raise premiums and do their best to deny care. CareFirst is by far the worst health insurance available but unfortunately the largest. Those physicians that accept BCBS do so at the jeopardy of the patients they serve because in order to keep their services profitable they have to see 2 to 3 times the volume of patients that they did a few years ago. Visits with the doctor have become shorter, wait times longer and quality of care lower. I wish more hospitals and providers would just say no!

6:47......exactly.Their executives are buying their third and fourth house while telling us how bad life is for them."We, the people" are choosing between a hernia operation and the electric bill.START THE HANGING before it's too late.I ain't joking.Or just pay the fine for NOT BUYING what they are selling (thanks to your "leaders"!)What's next?Keep cheering.